


Within the Smoke

by downpourcity



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 12:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14112459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downpourcity/pseuds/downpourcity
Summary: Another ending is a new beginning.





	Within the Smoke

Nathan awoke within a haze of confusion, watching as Max Caulfield stuck up her hand for the umpteenth time. He was done with this motion, this roller-coaster ride and all he wanted to do was get off it. Every time she put up her hand she rewound time, and every time that he was caught her doing it he was moved with her. However, she never seemed to notice. He felt his body be thrown backward out the bathroom door into the hallway.

He gulped as he realized he had to choose his words again, the ones that ended up bringing the gun from his belt, the ones that ended with Chloe Price on the floor and bloodied. He shuddered, his body being wound back forward as if the motion wasn’t months or years old. He never quite understood how much time had passed between each retry. He felt his stomach try to give out, he forced it back in. At this point he knew that using the gun wasn’t the answer. He walked into the bathroom, giving Max his same schpeel as he tried to snap himself out from the involuntary motions.

He forced himself out of it after Chloe appeared in the restroom, looking through each stall. He felt the rage build up in his chest, he hated himself, he hated what he had done and he hated everything that had led up to this.

He walked over to the final stall, heading to look around the corner, “Fuck yes…. Caulfield come out! I know where you are.”

Max let out a gasp, her face paling as he found her. She just about put her hand up again, Nathan put it down steadily but not violently.

“Stop it, Caulfield. I’m done going on your little trips.” He looked at her evenly, the age showing in his eyes, his facial expression that of a man who had seen everything, everything that she had.

Max put her hand down, her entire form shaking.

“Price… Price is going to be fine. We’re gonna make sure of it.” Nathan brought down his hand, putting it back to his side.

Chloe blinked out confusion as if she had been caught in the flash of a camera.

“Nathan, how the hell did you—” Max’s voice rose, hoarseness filling her throat as if she were about to cry as if she had done this for eons.

“I don’t know. We don’t have time.” His voice crumbled on the last word, his physique bursting into flames before her eyes.

“What do you mean we don’t have—” She was cut off by Nathan’s voice cutting in like a knife.

“I’m scared Max.” His usually firm voice took an unusual crash, his lips twitching as if he was ready to cry.

Max’s eyes dimmed in response as she spaced out from the conversation, shocked from the fact that he had gone through her journey with her. She hadn’t realized that all her actions up until this point had affected someone else besides the two bound by fate.

Nathan Prescott noticeably let a tear streak down his cheek as he felt the timelines he had experienced collapse into his already mentally unstable head. He swallowed it like a pill, a bullet of fear rattling down his throat.

Chloe was outside of them, the two time warriors astray in a metaphorical time bubble.

“All of this to save Chloe Price.” He laughed out quietly, almost mocking them but mocking himself instead.

“I-I came back to accept the fate of Arcadia Bay. I couldn’t live with sacrificing all those people, I…. I…” Max sputtered out finally after what felt like forever.

“I saw you make both decisions before.” He scoffed her, shaking his head. “You couldn’t take it anymore and dove into the ocean, your body instantly coming back to where you started as if you had to redo all of it.”

“The storm wants Chloe… and if it gets Chloe—” She bit her lip, feeling blood well up beneath it.

“You what?” Chloe shot in finally after forever. “What are you two talking about?”

“She’s your best friend, hell maybe more than that, Caulfield! Why would you throw her life away if you had these powers in the first place?” He stepped back, giving her room.

“Maybe she’s just not meant to be here anymore, maybe maybe… I…” She put her head down.

“Stop this bullshit!” Chloe hissed loudly. “This isn’t a theatre play, this isn’t a game, this isn’t a fairy tale. Now would someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”

“ _We need to put a bullet in Mark Jefferson’s skull_.” Nathan growled in return.

“No, we need to fix all of this. Rachel… Kate… Victoria…” Max put up her hand, the world beginning to spin around them. “It’s all my fault.”

Nathan was forced backward again, his shouts muffled by the course of time being folded around him. He ran back into the bathroom when the vortex ended, he felt his body starting to falter.

She held out a picture in her hands, the picture shifting into multiple directions as she was pulled inside, Nathan came with her this time, the two of them being thrust into another timeline. He appeared in his body from long ago, watching as Rachel was laying on the floor of the darkroom. He tensed, wondering what on Earth had just happened.

\--

“Nathan, apply the dose.” Mark Jefferson’s voice reverberated behind him.

Nathan clenched his fist, feeling something metallic in it. A bullet. His eyes widened as he felt tears well up inside his eyes, he looked around the room for Max but didn’t see her, remembering she hadn’t been here in this moment. He closed his eyes, realizing that he could stop her from dying. He could be the hero.

He looked to his right to the bookshelf, a pistol sat on the top of it, far away from either of them. He carefully walked towards the metallic surface of the table carrying the fatal dose. He veered off from it, grabbing the gun. He shoved it where the gun was previously in his belt loop. He walked forward, stepping over to Rachel as if he was going to dose her again. She retaliated just as he remembered. He felt a coldness come over his body as he whispered the most important words of his life.

“Rachel, I’m so sorry.” He clinched his eyes shut, grabbing the gun. “Let’s make this right.”

Her eyes widened as he grabbed out the slender body of the gun, putting the bullet that was firmly clinched in his hand within it. The bullet he had once considered using on Chloe Price. It had somehow managed to travel with him. He felt the presence of Max Caulfield in this instance, and another presence. He heard a man yell, David’s voice. He felt the force of a bullet whiz past his temple, he heard another gun shot as he moved up his hands to meet that of Jefferson’s frontal lobe. He heard Max scream as Chloe was taken down by the same man he threatened now. He heard the storm, he heard the cries of everyone in Arcadia Bay as it hit, he heard a thousand freight trains screaming past his head.

Mark looked up to meet the muzzle of the gun, a smile filling his lips. “Oh Nathan, is this really how you treat your teacher? After all of this time?”

Nathan clicked the safety, steadying his hands. He felt dozens of voices creep into his ears, the sound of the timelines flicking past him like thousands of butterfly wings. He didn’t hesitate, clicking the trigger with his finger. A bullet traveled at alarming speeds, hitting directly into his head, his body falling backwards from the force.

“Don’t you ever push me again.” His voice was firm, but tired. He dropped the smoking gun onto the floor, feeling his heart drop down with it.

He grabbed the duct tape off of the grimy woman, picking her up into his arms. The adrenaline took over, his heart racing as he ran from the complex as fast as he could with a bone thin woman. He expected to hear Jefferson’s words rattle off behind him, but instead he was met with eerie silence. Mark Jefferson was merely a monster in a man’s body, mortal and yet not of this world.

Nathan piled the two of them into Jefferson’s car, pulling out, driving all the way until he got to the hospital. When he dropped her off into the emergency room he collapsed on the floor, feeling all of the timelines, he had experienced with Max collapse onto his body. An elongated screeching noise filled his ears as he was pulled to meet the future of his decisions.

A flash of a camera shook him from his nightmarish situation. Max?

Rachel Amber stood before him with an old polaroid camera, taking his picture with a smile on her lips. She shook out the photograph like Max had done thousands of times before. He focused on her eyes.

A pair of brilliant blue hues greeted him.

“ _Max…_ ”

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Be my shelter from the storm, My war is over.


End file.
